Blumenthal said both statements foster a “well-founded fear” that the hearing is an effort to “trap Dr. Fauci in some kind of criminal wrongdoing,” which is not a congressional hearing’s purpose to him. “During some of the dark days in this body, under Senator Joe McCarthy, it became standard operating procedure to seek that kind of prosecutorial objective,” Blumenthal continued. He ultimately faced a Senate censure — a formal, public statement of disapproval that reprimands unacceptable behavior — and died in 1957. “We should not be part of a rerun of that kind of effort,” Blumenthal said. You are single-mindedly fixated on seeing Dr. Fauci prosecuted for imaginary crimes, and you are so invested in that outcome that you have created a personal brand around it.”